The invention relates to a device for stretching regions of tissue.
The stretching of tissue, in particular of skin tissue, is a process that is often carried out in surgery, in particular in plastic surgery.
Apart from stretching skin, stretching of connective tissue, tendons, muscles and also of vessels takes place.
In dermatological surgery, in particular in plastic-reconstructive surgery, stretching of the skin on both sides of lesions is required before the removal of the lesion.
The excision or removal of lesions sometimes involves the removal of skin tumours, birthmarks or moles or else scars over a large surface area.
If such a lesion is relatively large in area, it cannot be removed by a single intervention, since the regions of the skin around the lesion must be greatly stretched, the stretching producing a restoring force which disturbs the healing of the wound or has the tendency to tear open again the usually sewn site of the operation. Therefore, so-called serial excisions have been used in the past. This means that initially only parts of a lesion are removed. Time until the surrounding skin has stretched back is then allowed to pass, which generally takes months, in order then to remove a further part of the lesion and also the scar of the previous operation.
This procedure is not only very laborious but also, for the patient, involves corresponding repeated stress and strain, risks, costs and, for example, incapacity to work.
So-called tissue expanders that are implanted under the surrounding skin have been developed. Once the wound has healed, the tissue expander is gradually filled with liquid transcutaneously. The “water balloon” created in this way stretches out the surrounding skin. After some weeks, the expander can be removed. The lesion is thereby excised and the defect is covered with the skin obtained by expansion.
Such tissue expanders are very expensive and can only be used once. The procedure has a high risk of infection, since a foreign body that often punctures and has to be refilled has to be implanted under the skin. Frequent appointments with highly specialized doctors are thereby necessary, for the operation and for filling the tissue expanders. The filled balloon is clearly visible and restricts the private and professional life of the patient for weeks.
DE 103 49 953 B4 discloses a device for fixing and tensioning at least one pulling thread for applying a neovagina. This device comprises a plate-like base body on which at least one fixing element for fixing the at least one pulling thread under tension is arranged, the fixing element being assigned a spring, the first end of which is fixed to the base body. For the tensioning of the at least one pulling thread, the fixing element can be turned about an axis of rotation, a locking device being provided for the fixing element, by means of which device the fixing element can be locked at least in a direction of rotation opposite the direction of rotation for tensioning the at least one pulling thread. The free end of the pulling thread, or optionally a number of pulling threads, is joined to a plastic olive or so-called phantom. These exert a continuous pressure on the vaginal dimple by way of the tensile force, whereby a neovagina is formed within several days.
It is an object of the present invention to achieve rapid tissue stretching within a short time using the minimally invasive surgical technique.